Wood carving: basics of making a spoon and a ladle
Wood carving is the art of decorating a wooden surface by cutting a pattern into it. Carving needs hard, strong wood that resists damp and rot, with few knots, smooth and uncracked; walnut, apricot, black birch and Mirza poplar suit it. The board is cut to size, planed and smoothed first with coarse and then fine abrasive paper. The pattern is copied from a template with a soft pencil and then carved by the principle «from simple to complex». First the outline is cut with chisels matching the shape, then the background is deepened with a bent chisel (0.5–1 cm deep in islimi patterns) and levelled with a straight chisel. At the end a finish suited to the pattern is chosen; for a simple islimi the line finish alone is enough. The same principle applies to a spoon and a ladle: the shape is drawn on a block first, but removing the extra with saw and chisel is risky, so a master or teacher does it, while pupils draw, sand and finish. For food vessels only harmless oil or lacquer suited to food is used. When carving, the chisel always points away from you, the wood is clamped on the bench, and a cut-resistant glove is worn on the holding hand.
Pattern template: draw a simple islimi pattern (leaf, stem) in a 10 × 10 cm square on paper, trace it, and number which part would be carved first. Real chisel work is done only under a master’s supervision.